Una familia de brujos de Florida estafa 20 millones de dólares a una autora de ‘bestsellers’ románticos
Una familia de videntes y brujos con base en Fort Lauderdale (Florida) ha estafado durante los últimos 20 años más de 40 millones de dólares a clientes a los que pedía, en depósito para realizar hechizos, dinero y bienes que luego no devolvía, según han revelado fuentes de la investigación al diario The Sun-Sentinel. Una de las víctimas, la autora de novelas románticas Jude Devaraux, que ha vendido más de 50 millones de ejemplares de sus obras en todo el mundo, dio más de 20 millones a la red para encontrar consuelo tras la muerte de un hijo a los 8 años en un accidente de tráfico. Según la fiscalía federal, una de las acusadas, Rose Marks, le dijo a la escritora que el niño se encontraba “en algún lugar entre el Cielo y el Infierno”.
Los nueve arrestados en la Operación Bola de Cristal pertenecen a una familia de gitanos estadounidenses que tiene una cadena de tiendas esotéricas en el sur de Florida. Pedían a sus víctimas dinero y joyas para lavarlos y liberarles así de presuntas maldiciones que, de lo contrario, se cebarían con ellos. Y les prometían que después les devolverían todo, pero nunca lo hicieron. Así timaron los 20 millones a la novelista, que ha admitido la estafa en un correo electrónico enviado al periódico. Entre sus víctimas, hay, además, una mujer con un tumor cerebral a la que prometieron que recibiría energía positiva<7em>, un japonés que les dio 496.000 dólares y un danés que les envió 186.000. Gracias a los bienes de sus clientes, los brujos vivían a todo lujo.
La cabecilla de la red, Rose Marks, de 60 años, se podría enfrentar a 27 años de prisión y sus cómplices, a más de 14. El abogado de los acusados ha indicado que la lectura de la fortuna es un negocio legal y que sus clientes sólo daban consuelo a personas desesperadas.
Jude Deveraux confirms she was among alleged victims of Fort Lauderdale clan of psychics
Best-selling romance novelist Jude Deveraux has confirmed she is one of the alleged victims of a Fort Lauderdale family of fortune tellers accused of defrauding clients of $40 million.
"This is an ongoing federal investigation and I am not allowed to say anything to anyone. However, I am allowed to tell you that I wrote about the way the gypsies work -- without mentioning that they were gypsies -- in my book Scarlet Nights," Deveraux wrote in an email to the Sun Sentinel. She declined further comment and referred questions to federal authorities.
Deveraux is the author of some 60 mostly romance novels, about 37 of which have been on the New York Times best-seller list. Some of her stories feature paranormal plot lines. Scarlet Nights, published in 2010, starts out in Fort Lauderdale and features an undercover detective sent to investigate a criminal family in Virginia.
Deveraux, who writes under a pseudonym, is referred to by her real initials "J.M." in the indictment. Federal investigators said in court Friday that a successful author – who they declined to identify – had lost about $20 million in the scam.
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Federal prosecutors accuse the family and its associates, led by matriarch Rose Marks, of preying on vulnerable people during times of personal crisis.
Fortune telling is not usually a federal crime, but prosecutors alleged in the indictment that it was fraud because the family members promised to return the money and valuable items and claimed they were not charging for their services. The family is accused of a conspiracy and many of the transactions were done by mail or electronic transfers, making them wire fraud, according to prosecutors.
The prosecution said in court Friday that the family performed "magicians' tricks" and lied to convince their clients of "their special powers and legitimacy" and persuaded them to temporarily turn over valuables for spiritual "cleansing" rituals.
"[The family] falsely told the clients that the cleansing would result in the disappearance of all curses and evil spirits, the curing of illnesses and the end of bad luck and they would return all of the money, jewelry, gold coins and other valuable items after they had been cleansed," according to the indictment, unsealed when eight of the 10 defendants were arrested last week in Fort Lauderdale and New York.
Marks' attorney, Fred Schwartz, said Monday that "the detectives and agents may have improperly badgered the women's clients into believing that they were 'victims.'"
Deveraux's 8-year-old son, Sam Alexander Montassir, died in a motorcycle accident in October 2005, leaving her particularly vulnerable to exploitation by Marks, who she had known only by the alias Joyce Michael since 1991, federal prosecutors said.
"He was a very unique and highly intelligent child. He possessed a gregarious personality enabling him to never meet a stranger. Sam would travel around his neighborhood helping out in any way he could. He was a loving and giving young man and never showed anger," according to the child's obituary.
Retired Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Charles Stack testified that the writer was told her deceased son was "somewhere between heaven and hell." Marks claimed she could "start relieving J.M. and her friends and family of all evil spirits, the end of bad luck and the end of curses" by praying over the money which was "the root of all evil," according to the charges.
Bank records show checks and wire transfers of more than $2.1 million from Deveraux's accounts to some of the defendants between August 2006 and December 2007 alone. It's not clear if the other $18 million was in cash, jewelry or other items of value, or a combination of the three.
Stack, who investigated the case with the U.S. Secret Service, said Deveraux first met Marks 20 years ago during a period of turbulence in the author's marriage and a time of personal loss. Deveraux went to an astrology store Marks operates at 21 W. 58th Street, beside the famed Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, according to court testimony.
In the aftermath of her son's death, Stack said Deveraux was devastated. "That poor woman just wanted to die and be with her son," Stack said Monday.
"They [the Marks family] move in on her her, move her to a hotel room, her house is sold … and all her mail was being sent to the woman she knew as Joyce Michaels," Stack said. The alleged crimes went on until about January 2008 when Deveraux began helping investigators.
Marks, 60, who lived and also did business in Fort Lauderdale, claimed to be a clairvoyant or psychic "gifted by God" who conferred with Michael the Archangel in the course of her work, according to the charges. She moved her family here from Virginia about 13 years ago, detectives said.
Marks and seven co-defendants are being held without bond in federal detention in Miami and New York. They have not yet entered formal pleas to the charges but are expected to dispute them.
